Friday, February 19, 2010

Before I knew much about food or dining out, I knew that if they brought shrimp cocktails to the table as an appetizer, we were eating at a "fancy" restaurant. I'm sure I enjoyed the shrimp, but what I really loved was dipping the crackers in the spicy, horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce.

As I got older, I started to notice that while all shrimp cocktails pretty much looked the same, they sure didn't all taste the same. It's really easy to make a bad shrimp cocktail.

Simply use already peeled shrimp, boil them in plain water, and serve them with sauce from a jar. Any "shoemaker" can do that. By the way, this is not an insult to shoemakers, but an old kitchen term for something that tastes like a non-cook made it.

Making a great shrimp cocktail requires the shrimp be cooked with the shells on, and in a very flavorful poaching liquid, called a court bouillon.

It may seem like a lot of extra work, for just a little bit of extra flavor, but it really is the difference. There are a million formulas, but as long as there is salt, some acid, and some aromatics, you can pretty much do whatever you like.

Another tip; get the biggest shrimp you can find. This is a recipe where you want to have something substantial to bite into and chew for a while, so the cocktail sauce has time to mingle and work its magic.

Regarding the cocktail sauce; this is based on what my mother Pauline used to mix up, but I'm sure I put in a lot more horseradish than she did. You may want to add the horseradish last, and do it to taste, if you are not experienced using it. Enjoy!

Hey Chef John,What are your thoughts about which shrimp to buy? It's really difficult to tell the origins of the frozen bagged ones. Do have have any insight?(We are lucky enough to get spot prawns fresh for a couple of months each year but the rest of the time, I don't want to go without...)

i think if you go to the higher end stores, like Whole Foods, etc. and ask their fish dept, they can tell you where all the stuff comes from. they are pretty good about explaining the different options.

Thanks again Chef John! For years I couldn't figure out why my shrimp never had that wonderful taste of the restaurant versions. I had no idea they were cooked this way. As soon as one of these bad boys hit my tongue I knew the answer had been revealed.

Bowser and Blue are a musical comedy duo from Montreal (my hometown) who have a great song about oxymorons - and jumbo shrimp are featured in the song. Just thought that I would drop you a quick note since your post made me think of them (and I think that you would really enjoy their humour!).

Where do u find shrimp that beautiful? Whole Foods? im From Mass and there is one 40 miles away, is it worth the trip? Sorry i know u hate typing lol but im curious if i should start shopping there. I have a few good butchers in the area but if the quality at Whole Foods is that good im game.

Chef John! Love your recipes!! :) hope you reply to my comment here..Ok so I'm planning on making this but I don't have (and can't find, where I live) some old bay, and tarragon sprigs. Also i don't really like that much horseradish and chilli sauce, so what would be a good substitute for those 4 ingredients? Or can I just leave it out? I'm really confused finding the substitute for them and I hope you reply so I can try the recipe out!

Chef John! Love your recipes!! :) hope you reply to my comment here..Ok so I'm planning on making this but I don't have (and can't find, where I live) some old bay, and tarragon sprigs. Also i don't really like that much horseradish and chilli sauce, so what would be a good substitute for those 4 ingredients? Or can I just leave it out? I'm really confused finding the substitute for them and I hope you reply so I can try the recipe out!

I gotta tell you - I thought "mehhhhh" when I saw this recipe, but it looked so easy, so I kept it in the back of my mind and yesterday the BIG shrimp were on sale, so ok let's give it a whirl.

First of all, they ARE easy as hell, I mean, this is a complete no brainer. I had to devein my shrimp, a bit of a pain (not hard) but this was just a test run, so no big deal. I wouldn't go through the trouble if I had company and had to do more than 10, I'd buy pre-de-veined. Is that a word? it is now.

Secondly mine were jumbos 18-21 not colossal and I boiled for 4-4.5 minutes (took me more time than anticipated to get them all out). They were clearly overdone, lesson learned there. That's ok, I have no objection to practice.

Thirdly, I probably should have put in about 4x the salt, they weren't salty enough.

So that's the learning part. The TASTE though - these guys are head and shoulders above any shrimp cocktail I've had. SO SO SO delicious, sweet, even overdone you could taste that slight tarragon and Old Bay tang, enough to enhance but not so much that they tasted flavoured somehow.

Last but not least, my horseradish expired Feb 2012 (it's Oct 2014 now) sooooo we just ate these with some lemon, salt and that chili sauce which was surprisingly edible.

I shouldn't be surprised by now that pretty much everything here is a home run, but man, these guys are a HOME RUN. I obviously need to practice my timing, but these guys taste fantastic. Putting this into rotation for when the inlaws come over, which means they REALLY passed the test